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- Date:
- 2019-03-13
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Anthropologist, activist, and priest Roshi Joan Halifax is the founder and head teacher of the Buddhist monastery, Upaya Zen Center. Seventeen years ago at Upaya, she pioneered a new form of bedside contemplative care known as "Being with Dying," which has since helped to illuminate and change the psychosocial, ethical, and spiritual care of the dying. Halifax's newest work probes what she calls five "edge states" of how we become involved with our fellow beings: altruism, empathy, integrity, respect, and engagement. In this Bice Memorial Lecture, she explores the risks and the opportunities for courage and compassion that persons in the helping professions encounter "at the edge." Bice Lecture, Co-presented with the School of Nursing, UVA
63. Sugar! (1:02:48)
- Date:
- 2019-03-06
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Why do modern Americans eat so much sugar, and to what effect? This Medical Center Hour offers dual perspectives on the sweet stuff, what it does to/in us, and its many meanings in history and for health. UVA historian David Singerman and UVA physician Jennifer Kirby examine sugar’s impact on the body—past and present, historically, socially, physiologically, and nutritionally.
64. Learning from the suffering of patients: the empirical challenge of 21st century medicine (59:18)
- Date:
- 2019-02-27
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Twenty-first century physicians and other clinicians who are caring for patients in an era of unlimited knowledge, rapid knowledge turnover, and ever-more-sophisticated artificial intelligence (Watson!) increasingly need new skills and strategies. Such practitioners need too a renewed capacity for compassion. In this Medical Center Hour, eminent physician leader Dr. Steven Wartman, 2019 recipient of UVA's Brodie Medical Education Award, maps this critical juncture and challenges educators and other health professional leaders to reimagine and reengineer how we prepare doctors and other health care practitioners. The Brodie Medical Education Award Lecture
- Date:
- 2019-02-13
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Amid the current opioid epidemic in the U.S., discourse around addicts and addiction can be overwhelmingly negative, pessimistic, and hopeless, reinforcing negative stereotypes. Even in health care, negativity about addiction prevails, making it more challenging for clinicians and organizations to respond with appropriate care, services, and resources. The toll of addiction is staggering. But while statistical and fiscal analyses of the national epidemic can also overwhelm and add to the negativity, might we gain a different view of addiction by accessing the particular experience of it, as it affects individuals and also their families? To know better what is at stake and how to foster recovery, this Medical Center Hour turns to poets Kate Daniels and Owen Lewis for their response to addiction when it strikes close to heart and home. How can writing serve to access the lived experience of addiction—in this case, addiction inside the family circle—and how might writing aid in recovery, for everyone involved?
- Date:
- 2019-02-06
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- We've long known about books' ability to comfort, but can they have the power to heal? At a time when burnout is rife among practicing physicians and other clinicians, health care organizations are introducing systemic changes, including wellness programs. Beyond this, though, what might individual clinicians do to stave off burnout and fuel emotional resilience? New research suggests burnout relief may be as close at hand as a good novel. Reading for pleasure--especially, reading literary fiction--seems to enhance empathy and combat emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, thereby improving doctors' abilities to connect with the persons who are their patients and find joy in their work. Indeed, if reading for relaxation makes such a difference, should reading literature be a prescribed part of physician education and training? In this Medical Center Hour, Drs. Daniel Marchalik and Hunter Groninger examine emerging research on books' benefits for doctors and trace their own experience with the Literature and Medicine track at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
- Date:
- 2019-02-01
- Summary:
- Program 5_aerify arid conduits | InlandOutlines - Omar Fraire Triac - Ben Luca Robertson Musings - Aaron Stepp Convection - Juan Carlos Vasquez Centrifuge - Alex Christie in the event of my - Becky Brown Night Music - Christopher Luna-Mega About the Ensemble Splinter Reeds is the West Coast’s first reed quintet, comprising five innovative musicians with a shared passion for new mu- sic. The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances of today’s best contemporary composition, showcasing the vast possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and collaborating with fellow musicians and artists. As a relatively new chamber music genre, the reed quintet is an evolutionary detour from the traditional woodwind quintet with the advantages of a more closely related instrument family. With approximately 20 professional reed quintets worldwide, Splinter Reeds is explicitly dedicated to cutting edge com- position and expanding the existing reed quintet repertoire through the development of new works by emerging and established composers. Splinter Reeds formed in 2013 with the coming together of five col- leagues highly active in multiple facets of the Bay Area’s vibrant music scene: Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos (clarinet), David Wegehaupt (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon). The sum of their wide ranges of experience – in settings including free jazz, improvisation, electronic music, pop, punk and metal as well as classical – has enabled them to rapidly zero in on a distinct aesthetic identity. Recent concert engagements have included performances at Chicago’s Constellation, the Mondavi Performing Arts Center, Berkeley Art Museum, Switchboard Music Festival, FeNAM (Sacramento), April in San- ta Cruz Festival of Contemporary Music, Center for New Music (San Francisco), and the Presidio Sessions series. Additionally, they have held residencies at Stanford, Chapman, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, UC- Davis and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The ensemble has received grant awards from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, the Zellerbach Fam- ily Foundation, and the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. Splinter Reeds is fiscally sponsored through the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. www.splinterreeds.com Program Notes 5_aerify arid conduits | InlandOutlines – Omar Fraire “ It is truly no feat to blow a tube, and therefore no one would think to gather an audience for the purpose of entertaining them with tube blowing. But if he should do so, and if he should succeed in his aim, then it cannot be a matter of mere tube blowing. Or alternatively, it is a matter of tube blow- ing, but as it turns out we have overlooked the art of tube blowing because we were so proficient at it that it is this new tube blower who is the first to demonstrate what it actually entails, whereby it could be even more effective if he were less expert in tube blowing than the majority of us. “ FDC oegf. Human as an artist, inventor, magician, curator, teacher, performer. After having deserted from two universities in México, he specializes in Sonology (Koninklijk Conservatorium - Holland) and holds a Master’s de- gree in Contemporary Art as auditor (Aguascalientes). His work is inserted into reality by transducing it and functions as an act of resistance. Enjoys collaborative work and his energies oscillate across fields of knowledges/arts. Creator of Punto Ciego Festival and artist of the Gug- genheim Aguascalientes, mostly self-taught although he holds an M.A. with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan and studies Ph.D. at UVA. Triac – Ben Luca Robertson “Triac” investigates self-regulating sonorities and the intersection between tuning and timbre. Through a recursive process of real-time analysis, re- synthesis, and intuitive mapping, the combinatory spectral attributes of the wind quintet and accompanying electronics guide both the tuning and temporal structure of the piece. Applying a mathematical model developed by Pantelis Vassilakis, the composer defines cumulative roughness between harmonic partials—an important feature in how we perceive consonance/ dissonance—as a deterministic function for designing a microtonal tuning system that is sympathetic to the most indelible qualities of each instrument. Guided by software programmed by the composer, the ensemble manipulates the intensity of individual partials, thereby minimizing or maximizing the listener’s perception of roughness as the piece unfolds. Akin to a “spectral thermostat,” this self-regulating system continually analyzes current conditions (e.g. cumulative spectral roughness), defines new roughness thresholds, calculates what conditions must change to match these thresholds, and directs performers to adjust pitch and dynamics accordingly. Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co-founder of the independent record label, Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes, landscape, and biological systems— often supplanting narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning systems, and microtonality. Growing up in the inland Pacific Northwest, impressions of Ponderosa pine trees, channel scablands, basalt outcroppings, and relics of boomtown decay continue to haunt his work. Ben holds an M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University, a B.A. from the Evergreen State College, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. In the Summer of 2015, he was appointed to a guest research position at the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interactions (TAUCHI) in Finland and recently collaborated with biolo- gists from the University of Idaho to sonify migratory patterns of Chi- nook Salmon. Ben’s work has been featured at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Sound & Music Computing (SMC) Conference (Ireland), New York Re-embodied Sound Symposium, Third Practice, Magma, and Olympia Experimental Music Festival. Musings – Aaron Stepp “Musings” is an exploration of a piece of music that I love deeply, the Bach’s WTC, Book I, C Major prelude. It is an elegant, clean, and beautiful piece of music that I have a deep connection with. Witold Lutosławski describes listening to music as a composer being “schizophrenic,” listen- ing to and exploring the piece at the same time. I try to bring you along for that journey in my head (through the lovely performers on stage), and compose using the materials of the Bach. Think of the piece as a theme and variations, except the theme is a piece, and the variations occur as the piece unfolds. Aaron Stepp is a composer from Kentucky. He has completed commissions for TrioArsenal, Orchestra Enigmatic, Merrilee Elliott, KMEA 7th District Honors Band, Eva Legene, the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Second/Cycle, and Duo Passionato. He has received performances at SEAMUS, the KMEA Conference, and in Berlin, New York City, Chicago, Riverside, Washington D.C., Quito, and at various universities across the country. He recently finished a significant song cycle for Soprano and Flute named Stone Walls, based on the poetry of Charlottes- ville native Rebecca Morgan Frank. Upcoming projects include a collaboration with poet Annie Kim, a piece for American Trombone Quartet, a documentary score about women in India, and another collaboration with Rebecca Morgan Frank. Convection - Juan Carlos Vasquez “Convection” is a piece for ensemble and electronics that features a transference of spectral energy from one state of white noise into a final state featuring a single sustained pitch, in a way that resembles bulk displace- ment of sonic elements. This composition was written specially for the Splinter Reeds ensemble. Juan Carlos Vasquez is an award-winning composer, sound artist, and researcher from Colombia. His electroacoustic music works are per- formed constantly around the world and have been premiered in 28 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Vasquez has received creation grants and/or commissions by numerous institutions, including the Nokia Research Center, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, AVEK (Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture in Finland), the Finnish National Gallery, the University of Virginia, the Sibelius Birth Town Foundation, Aalto University, the Arts Promotion Centre in Finland and the CW+ in partnership with the Royal College of Music in London, UK, among others. Vasquez received his education at the Sibel- ius Academy (FI), Aalto University (FI), the University of Virginia (USA), and has taken courses with Andy Farnell, Miller Puckette, Marco Stroppa, Steven Stucky and Jonty Harrison, among others. As a researcher, Vasquez’ writings can be found at the Computer Music Journal and the proceedings of conferences such as the International Computer Music Conference, the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the International Sound and Music Computing Conference, and the International Conference on New Inter- faces for Musical Expression. Official website: www.jcvasquez.com Centrifuge – Alex Christie “Centrifuge” is about mass and gravity. The instruments exert force and pull on each other. Some exert more force than others, continually pulling the rest of the ensemble back to a center. This gravity creates an internal motion within the ensemble that in turn produces the slow, heavy motion of the full group. We simultaneously feel the weight of stasis and force of motion. Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess”, and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day”. He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the design of power structures, systems of interference, absurdist bureaucracy, and indeterminacy in composition. He is currently based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, light, video, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. Alex has performed and presented at a variety of conferences and festivals whose acronyms combine to spell nicedinsaucesfeemmmmmogscabsplot. Alex serves as faculty, Director of Electronic Music, Director of Composers Forums, and Academic Dean at the Walden School of Music Young Musicians Program. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia. Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes. in the event of my – Becky Brown When I was in high school, there was a block near me that had a Chinese restaurant, a big craft store, and a shoddy movie theater. When the Chinese place shut down, I realized none of the kids in the area after us would share the memory of trying to bring too many people to sit at one table, ordering the wrong thing off the menu, and then stressing about getting to a movie on time. That’s when I realized what aging felt like. The craft store and the movie theater shut down not long after. Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works across the multimedia spectrum. She focuses on narrative, emotional exposure, and catharsis, with a vested interest in using technology and the voice to deeply connect with an audience, wherever they are. Depending on who you talk to, her music is “honest, direct and communicative,” “personal and raw,” or “took me to a place I didn’t want to go.” Brown has been the Technical Director of the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and Assistant Technical Director for Third Practice and SPLICE Institute. Her music has been performed at SEAMUS, SCI National/Regional, Third Practice New Music Festival, Ball State New Music Festival, and in Beijing, China. Hold Still, her work for live art and electronics, was released on the New Focus Recordings label in 2017. Night Music – Christopher Luna-Mega All the musical materials performed by Splinter Reeds are derived from direct transcriptions and arrangements of recordings of the summer dusk and night sounds of insects and other creatures in a Virginia forest. Every movement in the piece is a fragment taken from the 40-minute original recording. The striking increase in density and loudness as dusk becomes night is the guiding formal principle of the piece. The recordings, featured in the electronics, were made with five simultaneous microphones in a pentagonal formation, at a distance of ~30 meters between each mic. Each of the five microphone analyses and transcriptions was assigned to an instrument (mic 1 to ob.; mic 2 to cl., etc.), rotating the pairings in each movement. The multi-channel recording sought an expanded listen- ing field resulting from the different microphone responses and placings. Among the various features of the night sounds, one particularly caught my ears: constantly microtonally morphing triads and their aggregates resulting from the superimposition of the multitude of crickets. Christopher Luna-Mega is a composer and improviser from Mexico City. He studied Composition at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México –UNAM (B.M.) and Mills College (M.A.), as well as Film/Com- munication Theory at the Universidad Iberoamericana –UIA, Mexico City (B.A.). His work analyzes sounds from natural and urban environments and translates them into notated music for performers and electronics. His music has been performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra, New Thread Quartet, Arditti String Quartet and JACK Quartet, among others. His music has been featured in festivals such as the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Seoul International Computer Music Festival (Gwanju), AgelicA (Bologna), Tectonics (Reykjavik), Tectonics (Glasgow), L’Off (Montreal), Avant X (Toronto), Mills Music Now (Oakland, CA), and the International Forum for New Music “Manuel Enriquez” (Mexico City). Luna-Mega is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia.
- Date:
- 2019-01-30
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Whistle Words is a multimedia project helping women reclaim their sense of self after a life-changing cancer diagnosis--with the simple aid of a pen. Charlottesville-based Whistle Words offers writing workshops for women in and after cancer treatment. Being part of this project as an adjunct or follow-up to treatment can make a real difference in participants' outlook and healing, as demonstrated by women's writings in the recently published anthology, Truth: Voices of Women Changed by Cancer. In this Medical Center Hour, Whistle Words' co-founder Charlotte Matthews and UVA nurse/breast cancer survivor/workshop participant Susan Goins-Eplee introduce Whistle Words and explore the healing power of writing. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2019-01-23
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- January 23, 2019 Joe Richman Since 1996, the Radio Diaries project has been giving people audio recorders and working with them to report on their own lives and histories. Collaborating with teens and octogenarians, persons with chronic and terminal illness, prisoners and prison guards, gospel preachers and bra saleswomen, the famous and the unknown, the project tells extraordinary stories of ordinary life. With stories aired on NPR, BBC, This American Life, and its own podcast, Radio Diaries has pioneered a new form of citizen journalism and, along the way, garnered every major award in broadcast journalism. This Medical Center Hour welcomes Radio Diaries’ founding director, Joe Richman, to share stories and draw parallels with health care practice, where, daily, clinicians traffic in the “extraordinary stories of ordinary life.” The Edward W. Hook Lecture in Medicine and the Arts / Medical Grand Rounds Co-presented with the Department of Medicine, UVA
- Date:
- 2018-11-14
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- The 1918 influenza pandemic was a global calamity that brought death on an unprecedented scale and intensified the devastating impact of World War I even as the armistice was signed in November 1918. Statistics tell the tale of this flu in one way, science tells it in another, but this Medical Center Hour—the third in a mini-series marking the pandemic's centenary—lets poetry speak to the human toll exacted by the 1918 H1N1 virus. In 1995, Virginia native and distinguished poet Ellen Bryant Voigt published Kyrie, a book-length sequence of poems in which small town speakers live through the harrowing epidemic and remember, defy, and mourn. Kyrie's fierce, moving poetry brings the global calamity home. In this Medical Center Hour, Voigt (on video) reads selections from Kyrie and discusses with poet Marianne Boruch the making and meaning of this American masterpiece. Co-presented with the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, Historical Collections in the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, and Influenza! 1918-2018
- Date:
- 2018-11-12
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Lucy Kalanithi is many things. Physician. Professor. Writer, and speaker. Mother. Widow. She was married for nine years to Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, the illness that claimed his life in 2015 at age thirty-seven. As he struggled, suffered, and worried, Paul wrote. His memoir—When Breath Becomes Air, for which Lucy wrote the epilogue—became a bestseller after it was published in 2016. In this Medical Center Hour, which is also the School of Nursing's annual Bice Memorial Lecture, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi talks with UVA Nursing Professor Ken White about the Kalanithis' challenging journey to the end of Paul's life and how Paul and Lucy did not avoid suffering but, rather, leaned into it and created meaning from it. The Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the School of Nursing
- Date:
- 2018-10-31
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- The year 2018 marks the centennial of the "Spanish" influenza pandemic, the world's deadliest event, killing at least 50 million persons worldwide. This pandemic's sudden emergence and high fatality are stark reminders of the threat influenza has posed to human health and society for more than a millennium. Unusual features of the 1918-1919 outbreak, such as the age-specific mortality pattern and unexpectedly high frequency of severe and fatal pneumonias, are still not fully understood. But the recent sequencing and reconstruction of the 1918 virus—work accomplished by NIH scientist Jeffery Taubenberger and colleagues—have yielded answers to crucial questions about the virus's origin and pathogenicity. In this Hayden-Farr Lecture at Medical Center Hour, Dr. Taubenberger summarizes key findings, considers yet-to-be answered questions about the 1918 influenza, and looks ahead to 21st century public health preparedness and the need to optimize preventive vaccines and vaccination strategies. The Hayden-Farr Lecture in Epidemiology and Virology/Medical Grand Rounds/History of the Health Sciences Lecture Co-presented with the Department of Medicine, Historical Collections in the Health Sciences Library, and Influenza! 1918-2018
- Date:
- 2018-10-24
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- This Richardson Memorial Lecture's origins are the hospital death of infant Lola Jayden Fitch and her family's journey to evoke change. The hour is anchored in the stories of Lola's parents--her mother, who questioned her intuition, and her father, who chose to continue working in the hospital where Lola's death occurred--and in a review of medical staff communication errors that tragically affected Lola's care. How can we prevent communication breakdowns, improve teamwork, and foster greater transparency and true partnership with families to make health care better and safer, especially for the most vulnerable patients? How can Lola's Song and similar stories--those of patients, families, health professionals, and others--help us to accomplish this important work? www.lolassong.com The Jessie Stewart Richardson Memorial Lecture of the School of Medicine Co-presented with the Office of Quality and Performance Improvement, UVA Health System
- Date:
- 2018-10-17
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- What if there were a vaccine that could prevent cancer? The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, available since 2006, does this, guarding against cancers caused by this ubiquitous virus. This Medical Center Hour explores the sociopolitical context of HPV vaccination in Virginia and beyond. Using clips from a powerful documentary film, Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic (2014), an expert panel of UVA researchers, clinicians, and oncologists discusses the crucial importance of HPV vaccination--for boys as well as girls--and the concerns that still limit its use. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Cancer Center, UVA
- Date:
- 2018-10-10
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Many personal, social, organizational, and regulatory factors in health care today contribute to clinicians experiencing burnout, a chronic stress syndrome characterized by exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of inadequacy. When severe, these symptoms are often accompanied and exacerbated by depression—and sometimes lead to suicide. In this combined Medical Center Hour and Medical Grand Rounds, Dean Gianakos MD FACP will not teach techniques to fortify personal resilience in the face of incipient burnout or offer strategies to reduce the inefficiencies of practice. Rather, using poems and stories, he will open a dialogue on how health professionals can emotionally support one another, initiate crucial conversations, and reduce the isolation that too often characterizes medical practice. Co-presented with the Department of Medicine, UVA
- Date:
- 2018-10-03
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Thirty years ago, the medical school at East Carolina University created a readers' theater program in which short stories about medicine were adapted as theatrical scripts. Medical students performed a story by reading it aloud, then actors and audience--often a community group--together discussed the drama and the ethical and social issues it raised. These plays and post-performance discussions enlivened and changed how future physicians and audiences--prospective patients all--approached and learned from one another. The best way to learn about medical readers' theater? Just do it. In this Medical Center Hour, UVA medical student actors present a dramatic reading of physician-poet William Carlos Williams's 1938 short story, "A Face of Stone." Following the performance, the audience joins in, as everyone responds to and discusses the play and the ethical, social, and cultural concerns it explores. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Sloane Society for Medical Humanities, UVA
- Date:
- 2018-09-26
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In June 2018, Gov. Ralph Northam signed a budget bill that gives 400,000 low-income Virginians access to government health insurance through Medicaid. This action marked an upbeat, bipartisan close to a bitter, four-year battle in the General Assembly. An Affordable Care Act option, Medicaid expansion makes additional low-income persons in participating states eligible for care that is funded chiefly with federal dollars. Virginia’s decision to join 32 other participating states hinged on a legislative compromise with Republicans that imposes work requirements on Medicaid recipients. While a few other states have taken similar positions, debate about work requirements continues in government, policy circles, and the courts. This Medical Center Hour looks at Medicaid expansion in Virginia—to be implemented in January 2019—from policy, political, and health care perspectives, with a focus on what it means locally, in Charlottesville and Central Virginia. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2018-09-23
- Summary:
- WAI from New Zealand with the EcoSono Ensemble: a collaboration across cultures, histories and ecosystems Toi tu te whenua, Ngaro atu te tangata People come and go but the land remains WAI features Mina Ripia, Maaka Phat, Uta Te Whanga and Tuari Dawson. EcoSono Ensemble features Matthew Burtner, Glen Whitehead, Kevin Davis, Christopher Luna-Mega, and I-Jen Fang Punga Shores WAI Hine Te Iwaiwa WAI Sands that Move Glen Whitehead Ki A Korua WAI Festival of Whispers Matthew Burtner Ko Te Rerenga WAI Windrose Matthew Burtner Kāore Hoki WAI Improvisation Tirama WAI The Speed of Sound in an Ice Rain Matthew Burtner Mike Gassman, electric guitar Hine Te Ihorangi WAI This concert and the WAI residency are generously sponsored by the Gassmann Fund for Innovation In Music and the Coastal Futures Conservatory. Concert III - Program Notes WAI and EcoSono explore intercultural histories through the exchange of musical invention in collaboration with the environment. Combining the ancient “Punga” (anchor) and the “Poi” technologies with contemporary computer music and ecoacoustic approaches, WAI and EcoSono engage in interactive improvisations through sound, song, movement and ecology. Punga Shores The concert opens with Punga Shores, a field recording of the place where Maaka discovered the Punga anchor which became the basis and metaphor for our collaboration. Hine Te Iwaiwa - WAI Hine Te Iwaiwa was written by a family member Nuki Tākao and local weavers, when they were preparing to begin their craft. Hine Te Iwaiwa is the principal goddess of Te Whare Pora – The House of Weaving. Hine Te Iwaiwa represents the arts pursued by women. Along with this, she is a guardian over childbirth. For us this song is our connection to the Poi. Hine Te Iwaiwa is also the head of the Aho Tapairu, an aristocratic female line of descent. Sometimes this goddess is referred to as Hina, the female personification of the moon. Sands That Move - Glen Whitehead Sands That Move is based on the Great Sand Dunes National Monument highlighting the long history of this site and the people who, from age-to- age, have stood in awe and wonder of this geographical phenomenon at the northern edge of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. These constant shifting sands have gone by many names from the earliest people to the Navajo who called it Saa waap maa nache,“sand that moves,” and the Apaches who settled in New Mexico who called it Sei-anyedi, “it goes up and down.” This fixed media piece was created out of many interacting, free- flowing evolving actions including rapidly moving college students from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs taking great effort to conjure the dunes as a sonic membrane. The trumpet-based computer accompaniment emulates these efforts and starts gathering its own momentum much like a dune fueling its own energy once it is engaged. Ki A Korua - WAI “Mina’s father wrote this song for his parents (Mina’s grandparents) when they passed on. It speaks of the tears that flow for them; we remember the love and joy that they shared with us.” Festival of Whispers - Matthew Burtner Whispers from people and instruments past and present interact as the sea erodes the foundation of the building. The piece was commissioned by the Athenaeum Library in La Jolla, CA. Ko Te Rerenga - WAI “Mina is of Ngā Puhi and Ngāti Whātua decent on her father’s side and Ngāti Kahungunu decent on her mother’s side. This song is a history lesson that talks of the time when Māori of Ngā Puhi decent were populating the northern part of Aotearoa/NZ. Traditionally we have many songs like this that talk of history, passed down through the ages, so that we never forget people, places and experiences of the past. Gifts for the future generations.” Windrose - Matthew Burtner A windrose is a measure of the winds’ directions in a specific location across a period of time. The piece uses original software that allows the performer to play the windrose of the concert location. Kāore Hoki - WAI Kāore Hoki speaks of a passionate expression of grief and sorrow for ancestors whom have passed. Never ending is the love and never ending is the heartache. Improvisation with the sounds of Australian birds, Tasmanian Devils and cedar trees. Tirama - WAI Tirama was written by Maaka’s first cousin Hēmi Te Peeti. Matariki is the Māori name given to the Pleiades star system. When it comes into view it is commonly agreed as the start of the Māori New Year, generally around May or June, and signals a time to prepare the land for the year ahead, to prepare and store food and to meet and discuss issues that affect the families and sub tribes. Tirama names some of the stars and also the actions taken at the time of the Māori New Year. The Speed of Sound in an Ice Rain - Matthew Burtner An ice rain crackles on the leaves of a magnolia tree. Musicians perform changing density, temperature and humidity, altering the speed of the sound. Hine Te Ihorangi - WAI Hine Te Ihorangi is the goddess and personification of rain. This was written by Keri Tākao and it talks of what happens when you are blessed with life. It speaks of the heavens, water and it’s life-giving properties. This connects us to what we as humans are mostly made up of, and what the world is mostly covered by, Water.
- Date:
- 2018-09-22
- Summary:
- Ouroboros Becky Brown mouthfeel Alex Christie weaving broken threads Heather Frasch Intermission Coluber sono Heather Mease & Ben Luca Robertson Códigos Obsesos v1.7 Omar Fraire Dulcimer Flight Dan Joseph Program Notes Ouroboros - Becky Brown walk circles round the morning and choke down again tomorrow, too I would like to introduce the days all crawling out of you yawn those teeth a little wide next year’s last week’s burnt anew yesterday’s stuck on your tongue you’ll try today, but then forget to mouthfeel - Alex Christie mouthfeel uses the performer’s human, fleshy mouth as a component in a greater circuit of noise. The mouth both actuates sound and acts as filter, moving the system through states of stability and chaos. weaving broken threads - Heather Frasch “How can secret rooms, rooms that have disappeared, become abodes for an unforgettable past?” Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, pg. xxxvi. weaving broken threads is the realization of an open text-score, Housed memories, that was inspired by the writings of Gaston Bachelard who uses the memory of “houses as a tool for analysis of the human soul” (The Poetics of Space, Bachelard pg. xxxvi). Both the score and the realization explore the memory of past spaces by using objects (sonic, text, physical) as source material. In the performance it weaves varied aspects of the distinctive places together (e.g. chronologically, most secretive, longest duration etc.). The digital instrument intentionally hides actions to emphasize the notion of interiority and how exterior physical places that no longer exist have become personalized inner notions of self. The digital boxes are a versatile digital instrument constructed from cigar boxes. With microphones, sensors and objects hidden inside, the instrument serves as a vessel for hiding/revealing material during the pieces that it interprets. Coluber sono - Heather Mease (video) & Ben Luca Robertson (sound) This collaboration between Heather and Ben has been realized through in- tense dedication to detailed processes and a love of snakes. Heather’s video combines the physical, time-intensive processes of scraping away at and applying India ink to a 16mm education film titled “Snake’s Alive.” Snakes make up both the content and the medium—as piles of colored film look quite serpentine! The aural component of the piece consists of sonorities generated through electro-magnetic actuation of six strings tuned in 7-limit just intonation. This instrument (‘Rosebud’)—designed and constructed by Ben—responds to electronic signals, whose frequencies correspond to the first seven harmonics of each string. Resultant resonances from the six strings comprise two overtone series’ (Otonalities) and a single undertone series (Utonality). A simple program analyses RGB data from the video, assigns a color value to each overtone/undertone series, and activates sym- pathetic string vibrations according to the average intensity of a given color. The resulting system combines movement, color, and physicality in sound. _Códigos Obsesos v1.7 - Omar Fraire Collaborative piece with the composer Jorge David, inspired by a Samuel Beckett poem. The material is generated by the composer and uploaded in score and audio fragments to be scrambled or manipulated by the collabora- tor: http://codigos-obsesos.hotglue.me Fin fond du néant au bout de quelle guette l’oeil crut entrevoir remuer faiblement la tête le calma disant ce ne fut que dans ta tête. Dulcimer Flight - Dan Joseph In his solo and collaborative works for electroacoustic hammer dulcimer, Dan constructs contemplative soundscapes that slowly unfold over the course of 30-minutes to one-hour. With roots in early minimalism, ambient music and acoustic ecology, these long-form “journeys” combine composed elements, often in the form of a fixed melodic pattern, with extensive improvisation and field recordings while exploring the dulcimer’s rich harmonic properties. Us- ing both traditional and experimental (extended) performance techniques in combination with his self-designed computer-based processing system, Dan gives this ancient instrument and entirely new and contemporary identity.
- Date:
- 2018-09-21
- Summary:
- Phonē (1981) John Chowning The Precession of Simulacra Juan Carlos Vasquez Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) Ted Coffey Assessment Postponement Nexus No. 1 Luke Dahl Rotunda Judith Shatin INTERMISSION You Sink Into the Singing Snow Matthew Burtner Lisa Edwards-Burrs, voice Kevin Davis, cello I-Jen Fang, percussion Sk(etch) Leah Reid Maybe Metaphors Are Easier A.D. Carson / Ryan Maguire Warp Study Michele Zaccagnini Voices (2011) John & Maureen Chowning for Soprano and Interactive Computer v.3 Maureen Chowning, soprano Program Notes Phonē (1981) - John Chowning The sounds in Phonē (from the Greek, meaning “sound” or “voice”) were produced using a special configuration of the frequency modulation (FM) synthesis technique that allows the composer to simulate a wide range of timbres including the singing voice and other strongly resonant sounds. The synthesis programs are designed to permit exploration of and control over the ambiguities that can arise in the perception and identification of sound sources. The interpolation between timbres and extension of “real” vocal timbres into registers that could not exist in the real world — such as a basso “profondissimo” — and the micro-structural control of sound that determines the perceptual fusion and segregation of spectral components are important points in this composition. The composer developed this technique of FM synthesis of the singing voice at IRCAM, Paris in 1979 using a DEC PDP-10 and realized the piece at CCRMA in 1980–81, using the “Samson Box,” a real-time digital synthesizer designed by Peter Samson. The work was premiered at IRCAM in Paris in February 1981. The Precession of Simulacra - Juan Carlos Vasquez The Precession of Simulacra, for piano and electronics, applies in music the concept of “hyperreality” coined by the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, where a simulated reality (in this case, computer sounds) is progressively indistinguishable from the actual reality (acoustic sounds). This piece was composed thanks to the support of Taiteen edistämiskeskus (Arts Promotion Center in Finland). Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) - Ted Coffey Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) belongs to a cycle of electroacoustic text-sound works dedicated to teachers and mentors. My texts address a related set of aesthetic and social topics including noise, production value, coherence, the open work, and transcendence. The project offers an excuse to soak in text-sound classics by Dodge, Lansky, Stockhausen, Westerkamp, and Wishart (to name a few). While FFT-based, wavelet and other “current” techniques of audio analysis and resynthesis are used to generate materials, I also explore the more venerable methods—vocoding, LPC, FOF, VOSIM, &c.—implementing idiosyncratic real-time instruments and improvising with them. The music plays with the wealth of meaning that spills out when [non-] sense, affect, and “quality-of-sound” are parameterized, and more generally develops syntaxes and structures appropriate to the texts. Often with wicked self-referentiality, Noise offers descriptions of randomness and pattern from human perspectives, and imagines how the matter might look differently from a divine one. Assessment Postponement Nexus No. 1 - Luke Dahl This piece utilizes a custom spatialized 8-channel feedback delay network (FDN) which is parameterized to afford morphing between discrete echos and more “washed out” reverberations. In this performance I use an SH-101 analog synthesizer as sound source, and explore various textural and gestural potentialities of this system. Rotunda - Judith Shatin While sitting in her office, facing the Rotunda and Lawn at the University of Virginia, composer Judith Shatin suddenly saw the scene spring to life as if in a movie that combined the majesty of the place with the daily hum of life. Filmmaker Robert Arnold, whose work often focuses on temporal elements, agreed to collaborate on the project. They re-purposed a computer/camera surveillance system, with the camera located for an entire year on the upper story of Old Cabell Hall, and collected over 300,000 images. During that period Shatin also collected a multitude of sounds, both in and around the Rotunda, and conducted unscripted interviews about its meaning to a wide variety of people. She created two sound tracks from these recordings, often using extensive processing. One includes interview extracts (heard this evening), and the other includes only sonic transformations and ambient sounds, such as rain, the stacking of chairs, the sound of lawn mowers and more. They structured the flow as one day unfolding over the course of a year, moving from dawn to dusk as the year moves through the seasons. The film is available on DVD, including both stereo and 5.1 audio of both ver- sions, available at judithshatin.com. You Sink Into the Singing Snow - Matthew Burtner “You Sink Into the Snow” (2012) is an electroacoustic song from the telemat- ic climate change opera, “Auksalaq,” co-created by Matthew Burtner (music/text) and Scott Deal (visual media) with imaging, video, animation and photography by Miho Aoki, Jordan Munson, Ryota Kadjita and Maya Salganek and data by Hajo Eicken. The song has been extracted from the opera as this independent vocal piece with video and electronics, and as an acapella choral work. The piece features snow as voiced sound and subject. Sk(etch) - Leah Reid Sk(etch) is an acousmatic work that explores sounds, gestures, textures, and timbres associated with the creative process of sketching, drawing, writing, and composing. Maybe Metaphors Are Easier - A.D. Carson / Ryan Maguire When violence is enacted against certain bodies, language breaks down. Perhaps language does not provide enough distance from such subjects to articulate them clearly. Maybe Metaphors Are Easier explores what it means to create distance, by way of metaphor and sound, to make some conversation, any articulation, possible. Voices (2011) - John & Maureen Chowning Voices is a play of imagination evoking the Pythia of Delphi and the mystifying effects of her oracular utterances. A soprano engages a computer- simulated illusory space with her voice, which allows us to project sounds at distances beyond the walls of the actual space in which we listen. Her utterances launch synthesized sounds within this space, sounds that conjure up bronze cauldrons, caverns, and their animate inhabitants, sounds of the world of the Pythia modulated by our fantasy and technology and but rooted in a past even more distant than her own - the Pythia’s voice becomes the voice of Apollo and Mother Earth, Gaea. Selected pitches of the soprano’s voice line are tracked by the computer running a program written by the composer in MaxMSP. The soprano’s voice is transmitted from a microphone to the computer where it is spatialized. At each captured “target pitch” the program synthesizes accompanying sounds using FM synthesis that is mixed with the voice and sent to the sound system in the auditorium. The spectra of the synthesized sounds are inharmonic derived from the Golden Ratio and ‘structured’ to function in the domains of pitch and harmony as well as timbre. The pitch scale is also based on divi- sion of powers of the Golden Ratio rather than powers of 2, as in the common tempered scale, an idea used in Stria (1977) and Phoné (1981).